Theo’s eyes grew heavy as the polluted city air from back home the moment his body noticed it was horizontal. He could barely focus even as he tried to open the new, or rather extended, screen that encompassed his stats. He’d still take a look, even if it was the last thing he’d do that night. He’d deserved a good half-night’s rest, hadn’t he? While he hadn’t been the focus or the channel of so much divine magical power this time, his head was still a bit burnt out from the previous night, and then there had been all those System messages to boot. He probably only remembered about half of them even now, but they were saved in his logs so he could remind himself of them… later.

  What did it call it? ‘Advanced Stats?’

  The screen popped up as if it had been waiting for him, and a lot of things started to make sense.

  Theo’s stats and skills (Advanced view)

  Health: 122 | Mana: 66 | Stamina: 100%

  H-regen/hr: 0.56 | M-regen/min: 1.93

  Physical: 56 (1.0x) | Mental: 66 (1.0x) | Vital: 56 (1.0x)

  Luck: 1

  Traits:

  Magical Ears

  Eyes of the Veil

  Essence of the Lunar Empress

  World Insight

  Prime Sheep

  Titles:

  Shepherd of the Scorned Witch

  Level One skills:

  Sigil Weaving

  Calculation

  Planting

  Brooming

  Serving

  Cleaning

  Plant Tending

  Water Affinity

  Town Management

  Tilling

  Mana Channeling

  This was what he’d been looking for the entire time! Had it really been as simple as just opening another window? But then, how was he supposed to know that?

  Either way, now he had a specific number of health points to use in future calculations, and he could even calculate how long it would take him to fully regenerate both his health and his mana. His stamina was oddly missing its specific sum and even its regeneration, though. He couldn’t quickly find a specific formula regarding his health points based on his stats, though. The system really had some work to do to ease the experience of using it.

  The window forced itself shut angrily, but Theo couldn’t be bothered about it right then. He fell asleep mere seconds later. At some point, Willam had snuck back inside and gone to bed himself. Theo hadn’t noticed this, but a slight rub of fabric on wood and a gentle thump of a light step woke him some time later. The morning sunlight didn’t directly touch him, yet its presence made itself known through the open doorway of the barracks room. A pretty face with glossy hazel hair looked down at him. Grace’s clothes had changed and she now wore a rougher shirt as well, her nice and silky blue one nowhere to be seen.

  Theo groaned. “Not now, Grace, whatever it is.”

  “Rude,” she complained, though her face didn’t seem to agree as it looked kindly at him. “I was checking on you. You seemed so tired yesterday, so…”

  “Thanks…” Theo hesitated. He looked around for any sign of Wen. With the exception of force-feeding him the essential oil potion, Grace had only seemed to care about Theo to tease Wen. She wasn’t here, though.

  Grace hummed humorously. “While it is fun to get under her skin, she isn’t here now. I’m here just for you.”

  “And no ulterior motives?”

  She shrugged devilishly.

  “Regarding Wen?”

  “Not right now, no,” she then grinned. Theo groaned again, but it was likely the furthest this would go. “So, big day yesterday. How are you?”

  Theo sat up and leaned into the wall behind him. It was solid and sturdy. “Fine, I guess. A bit sleepy. How are you?”

  She sat down in front of him and whispered her response with a smile. “Curious. But otherwise fine. I’m pretty resilient. Comes with the territory,” she said.

  “The territory of being a priestess of half of all religions in the world?”

  She laughed, looking over at Willam’s still sleeping form to see if it was too loud. It wasn’t, it seemed. “That’s more of a side business. Mainly, I’m an adventurer, though you’d be surprised how much of an overlap there can be between those two jobs. People go adventuring for all different kinds of reasons; money, treasure, power. Some, though, like me, enjoy the mystery. I’m looking for anything Arcana-related, be it in dungeons or the forgotten corners of the world. I want to know what happened, why she left us and how she came to be. Now, I’m also curious as to why she’s returning… and you.”

  “I’ll tell you the story later,” Theo tried evading her intended question.

  “Wen already told me last night,” the cleric grinned. “But if you’re still up for a dungeon run tomorrow, I’d love to hear it straight from the Lady of Mystery’s mysterious man’s mouth.”

  “That sounded like a mouthful,” Theo teased with a smile. “But that sounds like something I can do. Is it dangerous down there?

  “How handy are you with a weapon or offensive magic?” Grace then asked despite already knowing the answer pretty clearly.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Not the least,” he said whilst puffing out his chest playfully. She chuckled, eyed Willam again and then headed outside without so much as a word of goodbye.

  Theo got up as well, though the sudden move roused Willam from his slumber. The lanky man’s eyes opened slightly, resembling low and wide arrow slits rather than eyes as the ambient light poking through the doorway poked at them.

  “Hm?” was the sound he made as he looked around. “Was someone here?”

  Theo laughed. “I thought farmers were early risers.”

  Willam groaned in an identical fashion as Theo had just a minute earlier. “Only when their direct neighbours don’t stay up all night making a ruckus. I didn’t dream that you summoned an effigy from the heavens last night, right?”

  “I didn’t summon it,” the otherworldly man countered with minimal effect.

  “Right. So there won’t be the biggest effigy I’ve ever seen devoted to anything, much less Arcana herself outside when I get up?”

  “I didn’t say that,” Theo laughed. Willam chuckled as well and got up from the ground at the same time Theo headed out the door.

  “Oh! Since you helped me with sowing the seeds, I’d like to return the favour. Let’s get a garden going and plant ourselves some herbs and spices, alright?”

  “What?” asked Theo, perking up a bit as Willam joined him in the fresh outside morning air. It was slightly cold out, but the rising sun was already warming the air and the skin on Theo’s face as he faced it.

  “I had Phoebe Phoebs bring some along with the seeds for the farm I ordered as prerequisites. With a handful of a few various seeds, it’s practically free and they don’t weigh much.”

  “You did this in secret?” Theo asked with a surprised smile.

  “I mean, you didn’t ask, but I did want to surprise you,” the tall man responded with a friendly nod.

  “But should we focus on a garden so early on? There must be a lot more stuff to prioritise above this.”

  “Relax!” A massive palm slammed down on Theo’s shoulder. “Most of the stuff can be used for spices and flavouring of food, not just to help Wen’s future brews taste right. I’m sure everyone would approve for that reason alone.”

  Theo had missed spices. Wen’s food in the Barge in Brook Town was fine, but it lacked everything flavourful except salt, which she compensated with adding a bit too much of to increase the flavour and boost her drink sales. When Theo had heard this, he had to admit he was impressed with her business sense, at least.

  “I had a craving for chillies last night. You didn’t get any seed for that, did you?”

  Willam grinned. “Two of them! As I said, a handful of seeds aren’t really too expensive nor heavy, so there’s loads of different stuff. We’ll go through them together, though I have to warn you I don’t know how to nurture most of them all too well. We’ll have to see how it goes.”

  “Willam, you magnificent beast of a well-intended and delightful man! I’d love to garden with you!”

  In order to set up a more or less permanent garden, the two builders suggested low garden bed walls fastened with mortar under the surface in order to keep the walls from falling down whilst protecting the weaker-than-crops plants Theo intended to tend to. It wasn’t all that important now as Wen was deep into planning her new inn, and was busy chalking up her dream design with the Hankerssons.

  She was livid at first considering the giant effigy of the goddess Arcana had taken her designated plot in the centre of town, but it was Theo that shortly suggested that she could build around it, keeping the effigy as the centrepiece of an open area, possibly with outdoor seating and a bar for those nice summer days.

  She loved the idea and started with a brand new design the very instant she could picture it. It would be circular, it would have to be, which would be a bit harder to build, but would have so much more to gain from! Like… looking different. When told she’d lose a bunch of workable area, she finally settled on a circular outside area in the centre like Theo had suggested, but square corners of the outer walls. Pretty early on her wishlist was also a greenhouse and an herb garden attached to the edge along the outer wall connected nearby to the kitchen and the brewery. She’d set aside quite the large plot for it, and while it wasn’t explicitly stated, Theo knew she wasn’t one for gardening. It was a site set aside for him.

  As they continued discussing this, as well as other building projects that would have to be done before this, Theo and Willam continued on toward the farm. While a plot would be set aside next to the inn, it wouldn’t be done for a while yet and if he started planting there now anyway, it would only be in the way of further progress.

  Next, Theo and Willam got to work roughing up the soil in a small plot just next to Willam’s farm. It was in close proximity to the seed stores and tool shed and would likely be affected by any bonuses provided by the future farmhouse. Now that the effigy was here, through no choice of their own, Theo was starting to understand how buildings and constructions could provide bonuses to the nearby area. The +1 mana regen gained more than doubled his mana regeneration. Would a farmhouse increase the harvest yield? Quicken growth?

  Theo still considered this magic, but the rest kept assuring him that wasn’t the case because no spell was needed. What they didn’t understand was that the world itself was entirely magical and these kinds of effects simply didn’t happen without it. It was a clash of philosophies, though, and neither side was likely to convert the other’s thoughts on the matter. Theo just had to settle with the knowledge that it certainly was magic, but it was so ingrained in this world’s inhabitants that it was mundane to them.

  Before they had finished stirring up the soil for planting, Hank arrived with a few quickly built plant dividers for making a bed for each type of seed without too much interference between them. While Theo helped the builder set these up, Willam went to see to his own crops, then rushed back to the garden when Theo’s work was nearing completion.

  “Theo? You mentioned your previous plants had started sprouting before Brook Town was destroyed, right?” he asked.

  Theo scratched his nose, spreading some dark dirt onto it from his finger. “That’s right,” he answered. Theo seemed to remember Willam not quite believing him.

  “So… That was really true?”

  There had been something affecting the plants and crops in Brook Town. Wen firmly believed, after finding some evidence of this in that hole beneath the ruins of Brook Town, that it was a necromancer’s work that fouled the soil in the area.

  “I made the soil myself, so it was probably not affected by the curse-necromancer-thing,” Theo once more defended himself.

  “No, I mean… Even without that, it was pretty quick. Too quick. But…”

  “But?” asked Theo patiently.

  Willam kicked the loose dirt with his right leg as he looked down. “But the crops are already starting to sprout, too. It’s days ahead of schedule, even if they are just tiny sprouts right now.”

  “Compared to Brook Town?” asked Theo to clarify.

  Willam shrugged. “Compared to everywhere. This place is either super fertile…”

  “Or?”

  “Or your dirt is.”

  Theo looked down at the softened soil he’d just spent an hour or two to make soft enough without too much grass and roots getting in the way. He then immediately started emptying the sectioned beds of said dirt with a wide smile on his face.

  “Then let’s get going!”

  “With what?” Willam asked, eyeing Hank who was still standing there to finish the last section.

  “Experimenting! Leave one bed with the finished soil, empty all the others! We’ll have to see if the water makes any difference as well! Oh, we should probably take notes! Damn, no paper. Hank! Make us some signs!”